So to recap: the SCOTUS has ruled that the agency established and authorized by Congress to regulate environmental protection does not have the authority to regulate environmental protection.
Did I get that right?
Did I get that right?
It seems congress gave them limited power to regulate environmental protection via a law that was written. The EPA seems to have overstepped its legal boundaries in regulating. Instead of saying, "ah fuck it, let the machine run," the court is forcing congress to actually give it the additional power that it's been using, or to stop.
> The majority says it is simply “not plausible” that Congress enabled EPA to regulate power plants’ emissions through generation shift- ing. Ante, at 31. But that is just what Congress did when it broadly authorized EPA in Section 111 to select the “best system of emission reduction” for power plants. §7411(a)(1). The “best system” full stop—no ifs, ands, or buts of any kind relevant here.
They were given broad power by congress explicitly. If congress had wanted them to reign in that power or not choose the best system, then they could pull it back at any time. They did not. The court decided that the previous congress was full of idiots and could not fathom future technologies for emission reduction and therefore is moot.